Joe and Others I did some testing also. I'll have to dig up the photos and other documentation of how I actually accomplished the test. I moved and don't have a clue where it went right now. When I locate it, I'll post the results somewhere. But as memory serves:
The T-88 held up better than the West System for structural applications in my test. The West System acted more brittle. It also broke clean, as compared to the T-88 sample. The T-88 sample failed at the wood, not the joint. Leaving wood fibers on each side of the joint. You could actually see where the T-88 stoped penetrating in the joint, and that's where the wood failed! Just really proved to me that the spruce / epoxy is actually a composite(the true definition of), the combination is stronger than the individual components. I understood when I purchased the West System, that it's main use is a Laminating Resin. But was hailed by the boat and yacht industry as an excellent wood bonding epoxy. But as a result of my tests, the T-88 outperformed the West System in my book. I didn't compare test samples of BID layups, maybe I'll try and do a comparison this weekend. The Resorcinol (sp)adhesive (original formula) I thought was just about completely banned because of it's toxicity, but I understand was the best thing since sliced bread when building a wooden boat...which was what I had originally intended to use. I actually found some new formulated stuff over at Charlie's Farm and Home the other day....Day late and a dollar short! --- "Joseph H. Horton" <joe.kr2s.buil...@juno.com> wrote: > > On Wed, 26 Nov 2003 10:28:01 -0800 "David Mikesell" > <skyguy...@skyguynca.com> writes: > > Thanks Scott, but as I understand that the West > system is for bonding wood and for doing fiberglass? > > > I was also curious about this about 5 years ago. I > did some tests with different scraps of spruce and plywood that was laying around. I did not get results that I would bet my life on. The west epoxy was to runny to stay in the joint. It does not appear to have any good gap filling qualities as it is brittle by it's self. The destructive testing of my samples also broke at epoxy lines without bring wood fibers with it in many cases. Most of my boat is glued with rosinol glue as that is what Rand recommended at the time (nearly 10yrs ago) Use the epoxy that is made for it's primary mission. > Joe Horton > joe.kr2s.buil...@juno.com ===== Scott Cable KR-2S # 735 Wright City, MO s2cab...@yahoo.com __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Free Pop-Up Blocker - Get it now http://companion.yahoo.com/
